CHAPTER XXII. 



HAMBLETONIAN'S SONS AND GRANDSONS. 



Different opinions as to relative merits of Hambletonian's greater sons 

 George Wilkes, his history and pedigree His performing de- 

 scendants History and description of Electioneer His family Alexander's 

 Abdallah and his two greatest sons, Almont and Belmont Dictator 

 Harold Happy Medium and his dam Jay Gould Strathmore Egbert 

 Aberdeen Masterlode Sweepstakes Governor Sprague, grandson of 

 Hambletonian. 



THERE is hardly a prominent sire by Hambletonian that has 

 not been claimed by his admirers to have been the "greatest son" 

 of the most renowned of trotting progenitors, and if a poll of 

 the horsemen of the country could be taken to-day as to what 

 horse was the greatest son of Hambletonian, probably a dozen 

 names would be found to have thousands of supporters each. As 

 with all questions that are largely matters of opinion, and that 

 oannot be decided absolutely by figures, the relative rank of 

 horses as progenitors must always remain open to disputation 

 according as thinkers approach the subject from different points 

 of view and of interest. I shall not enter into any discussion as to 

 the relative merits of the great sons of Hambletonian with a purpose 

 to reach any deduction as to which was or is the greatest; but 

 shall refer the reader to the table given in the preceding chapter, 

 and content myself with briefly giving the history of the more 

 renowned sires of the Hambletonian line, with such statistics as 

 may be necessary to gauge their rank as progenitors. 



GEORGE WILKES was one of the first of Hambletonian's sons 

 to attract attention, by his performances on the turf, to the 

 value of his sire; and as a progenitor he must be accorded a place 

 in the first rank of all trotting sires. This horse was bred by 

 Colonel Harry Felter, Newburgh, New York, was foaled 1856, 

 and was got by Hambletonian out of the fast road mare Dolly 

 Spanker. (This mare was afterward registered on what seemed 



